


Induction

by sarisa



Series: Wolf Lake Redux [1]
Category: Wolf Lake
Genre: AU, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-04-09
Updated: 2011-04-09
Packaged: 2017-10-17 19:56:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/180643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarisa/pseuds/sarisa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A very AU scenario in which Amanda Cates survives her first flip, and Sheriff and Mrs. Donner had two children. This is an alternate version of the John/Ruby storyline.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Induction

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not actually sure where this came from, since I adore Wolf Lake (and John and Ruby!), so I suppose this is just my supposition of what could have happened had Amanda not died. Not many people have seen the show, and I wrote this entirely for my own amusement, but I thought I should put it up so that perhaps some Wolf Lake fans might enjoy it... I hope? :)

Part One

 

Not shockingly, Ruby had skipped out on her again.

Also not shockingly, Amanda had agreed to cover for her twin, even though Ruby hadn’t exactly asked. She just... hadn’t shown up. It was more of a mental agreement. It’s the usual way of things with the Cates sisters; Thursday night at the diner and Ruby had ditched, had gone off with Tyler on one of his “pizza runs.” Probably not out to the lake; no, not Tyler, two years out of high school and with bigger dreams than a pack member had a right to, he’s far too adult to hang out with the teens at the lake. Much more likely that they’d parked out on one of the old logging roads for a good make-out. Because it didn’t matter if Tyler was three years older and long since Flipped, while Ruby and Amanda both still hadn’t managed it. At seventeen, Ruby thought herself thirty, and screw whatever their dad or Viv might say about it.

And here’s Amanda, in her ridiculous yellow waitress uniform, serving coffee to the truckers and Sherman Blackstone and feeding Charlene Hart and her cronies as many burgers as their metabolisms can handle. Buddy Hart, Charly’s triplet (twin, now, really, since their second brother hadn’t survived his Flip) and a few of their year-mates are shooting pool and ogling Amanda’s ass whenever she heads in that direction. Pretty normal, really. She shoves her glasses a bit farther up on her nose and picks up Mr. Blackstone’s order, sliding it onto the table in front of him and smiling when he thanks her. For the moment, she’s good, everyone taken care of, and she takes a sip of her coke behind the counter, resting her weight on one foot to take the pressure off the one she’d twisted in dodge-ball that day.

Nearly everyone in the diner looks up before she does; not being able to hear everything happening on the street perfectly clearly, she only notices the incoming customers when the bells above the glass door jingle. She grins, seeing the smallest newcomer, who bounces up to the counter and climbs up into a seat, the big beads on her hair ties clacking.

“Hi Amanda!” Brown eyes beam up at her. “It’s chocolate milkshake night! I got an ‘A’ on my spelling test.”

Proud but not surprised, since she’d helped Sophia study for that particular test that weekend when she’d babysat, Amanda grins. “Great job! Extra large chocolate milkshake coming up.”

“With an extra cherry?”

Amanda grins. “Of course.” Her eyes lift to meet Sophia’s father’s. “Hi, Sheriff.”

“Evening, Amanda,” Sheriff Donner returns, sliding onto the bench next to his daughter and smiling up at their babysitter. “How’re you doing tonight?”

Amanda shrugs, smiling. “Busy. Just the milkshake?”

The sheriff holds up two fingers, and Amanda nods, turning back to the milkshake machine. Two minutes later she slides two shakes down in front of the Donners. “Here you go. Two extra cherries on both.” She pauses, then asks, purposely nonchalant, “No Caleb tonight?”

“He stayed home.” Sophia takes a long sip of her shake. “Mom’s not feeling well.”

Wiping down the counter, Amanda frowns, looking at the sheriff, who just shakes his head, smiling a little. “Just a cold.”

“Good.” Shaking her head slightly, and trying not to be disappointed that Sophia’s older brother hadn’t come with them, Amanda turns and nods to Charly Hart, who wants another platter of barbecue wings. Business as usual.

 

 

Amanda wakes from where she’d passed out on her calculus book somewhere around three in the morning, when her sister agilely shimmies up the tree and through their window; she returns to consciousness to find her sister’s blue eyes glowing gold and blinks. Her own brown eyes, inherited from their mother and not their father, stay dull and dark as she stares sleepily at Ruby.

Her eyes are glowing. In fact, almost all of her is glowing, or seems to be, backlit by the moon as she is. “You’re... you’re going to Flip,” Amanda whispers, trying to ignore the jealousy swirling in her gut. “Did you? Did you and Tyler... do it?!”

Ruby grins smugly, but shakes her head. “Not yet. I’m going to make him wait a little first.”

Amanda lets out a slow breath. “You’d better do it soon, if you’re getting that close... better that way than letting it come on its own.” It hurts to say. But she hasn’t felt anything like it, herself, so she can only cheer Ruby on. Ruby is the older twin, without a doubt the bolder of the two of them, and Amanda knows it. She’s always been more likely to follow what her sister wants to do than strike out on her own. They both do well in school, make the honor roll every quarter, and since they haven’t Flipped yet, they still keep human friends. Well, Amanda more than Ruby, these days. Lately all her sister seems to want to do is make out with the pizza delivery boy. Tyler Creed gets under Amanda’s skin, and always has, but Ruby thinks he’d more or less hung the moon. To say Amanda doesn’t understand would be putting it mildly.

“How’s the Creep?” she asks dryly, stretching the kinks out of her back and climbing under her covers, attempting to hide her jealousy.

“Fantastic. As always.” The smugness intensifies. “Homecoming’s coming up. If I’m elected, I think that night might be it.” She lifts her head, suddenly, eyes bright as she smiles over at her twin. “You should let Buddy take you. We can go as a group. Then I’ll have someone to talk to about something besides cars and liquor.” The words are scornful, but Amanda can hear the smugness still there, as well. Her sister is enjoying every bit of attention from the older boys, and frankly, Amanda doesn’t like being offered a little bit of it, like a good puppy’s given a treat.

“Sounds scintillating.” She curls into a ball beneath her comforter. “I’ll probably just go with a group of people. I don’t really want a date.” Not an official one, anyway.

Ruby’s eyes sharpen. “Please don’t tell me you’re going with Donner. Dad said- “

“We’re just friends. It’s nothing.” Amanda waves this off, fingers slipping out above the cover to make a tiny sweeping motion before disappearing again as Ruby strips, climbing into bed naked. It doesn’t bother either twin; nakedness isn’t a problem, when your family often strips down and changes into wolves, even if they haven’t done so themselves yet. “He’s just... nice. And he knows how it feels, too, not to have Flipped yet.”

“He’s going to die if he does.” Ruby grows quieter when she senses Amanda’s reaction to that. “I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to get hurt, and you shouldn’t get your hopes up. You know that.” She falls silent for a moment. “He probably won’t Flip anyway. But if he does... he’s half-human. His human side won’t survive it, Mandy.” She swallows. “And if that happens and you’ve let yourself get close to him... you’ll be hurt. I don’t want you to be hurt.”

“I know.” Amanda is barely audible, now, and she’s not looking at her sister. “Goodnight.” She claps, and their light turns off.

“Night.”

There’s a minute or two of silence. “Don’t call me Mandy, Ruby-Doo.”

“Shut up!”

 

 

Ruby has cheerleading practice after school the next day and Luke’s going over to a friend’s, so without a sister to chauffeur or a little brother to pick up, Amanda decides to just hang out and watch the cheerleaders and football team practice after school. If she took the car, she’d only have to just bring it back to pick Ruby up for work, anyway. She might as well enjoy the rare October sunshine and get her homework done.

Of course, the scenery doesn’t hurt, either.

Ignoring her sister and the rest of the human cheerleaders making a pyramid on the track below the bleachers, she holds her history textbook open on her lap, sunglasses on, and does her best to be discrete as she watches the football team go through plays in preparation for that Friday night’s game. It _definitely_ doesn’t hurt that the abnormally warm day has prompted most of them to practice in cut-off shirts, or with nothing at all under their practice jerseys; her eyes follow number 34 as he charges through the defense to make a path for the quarterback.

WLHS isn’t terrible for a high school team, but not for the reasons most people would expect. You’d think, with a population partially made up of super-strong, super-fast teenagers, their sports teams would all be phenomenal, but after a kid from the Hill Flipped, sports immediately became a thing of the past. They can never draw attention, never be seen as different from the human teens, and so what teams there are (in Wolf Lake’s case, basketball, football, soccer, and cheerleading) are all made up of human students.

The teams both take a break, the boys heading to the water cooler while the girls stand in a small group and chat; Amanda sees Ruby look up out of the corner of her eye but pretends to be oblivious, eyes on her textbook. They’re not, actually, though- down on the field, helmets have come off, and a handful of the guys have stripped off their shirts, sweaty torsos gleaming in the afternoon sun. This, naturally, has caught the girls’ attentions easily, and Amanda glances back and forth between the two groups now, not lifting her head and stifling a smile.

Ruby looks back up at her again, clearly catching on to where her twin’s thoughts are headed, and this time Amanda really does turn her attention to her book, cheeks flushing. A moment later, though, a shadow falls across her and she looks up, startled, to be confronted with a dirty white jersey. She cranes her head farther upwards to find number 34 grinning down at her, one of the few still wearing a shirt.

“Take a break for a minute, Cato. You’re like a study-machine.”

Making a face at the nickname (although it’s better than Mandy), she smiles back, gesturing to the bench beside her. “Sit down and stop growing. I’m going to need a chiropractor soon for my poor neck.”

Caleb’s grin widens, but he does sit; instead of plopping down next to her, though, he folds himself down onto the bench one step lower than her, sprawling sideways and straddling the metal seat.

“Aren’t you supposed to be practicing?” she asks tartly. He shrugs, and she rolls her eyes. But before he can reply, or they can have any sort of actual conversation at all, his coach’s whistle blows. He jumps up automatically, tapping the bridge of her sunglasses and knocking them down her nose. She scowls, swatting at him, but he jumps away and down the bleachers, sending her a grin as he yanks his helmet back on.

Glaring after him, she considers standing and stomping off, but that would only let him think he’d won. What exactly it is he would have won is a mystery, but it’s true, nonetheless, and so she stays right where she is. She buries her nose in her textbook again with a grumble, this time keeping her eyes fixed on the page.

 

 

Nothing changes in Wolf Lake for Amanda for several weeks. Ruby is still showing signs of being close to Flipping, but her twin has it in her mind that she’s waiting for Homecoming night to sleep with Tyler, and even Ruby’s wolf seems to cooperate once Ruby’s stubbornness sets in. And sure enough, she runs for Homecoming Queen and wins the contest; no other contestant even comes close. Amanda helps her campaign, not bothering to get a date, and eventually decides to go with a group of friends. It doesn’t escape her notice that Caleb Donner doesn’t have a date, either, but is going with another group of young people.

It’s as Amanda is putting the finishing touches on her hair, tied up for once in a snug knot, that she notices her eyes flash gold in the mirror.

She freezes. Her hands are still resting on her hair, and she stands there, staring at herself in the mirror for at least a minute, until there’s a knock and Ruby comes in, still muttering about their stepmother’s insistence that she wear a ‘decent’ dress. Amanda doesn’t respond, until her sister moves over and rests her chin on Amanda’s shoulder. She blinks, and when she opens her eyes again, they’re a much more normal hazel.

She smiles, nervous now, admiring her sister in the mirror. Ruby’s hair is up, too, piled on the top of her head, with her tiara resting in it, and her silver gown sets off her eyes. She’s lovely, and although they do resemble one another, Amanda feels plain by comparison, merely pretty to Ruby’s breathtaking. Maybe it’s true and maybe it’s not, but she knows she’s the quiet, thoughtful one, not the vivacious, outgoing twin. When they’re Flipped, Ruby will be the alpha of the younger generation, not Amanda, and she’s... well, she’s relieved about it, frankly. She doesn’t want the pressure of having to keep track of the rest of their age-mates.

When they go downstairs to take pictures, she lets Ruby do her usual dramatic poses, smiling nervously. One more event to document; she might not be Homecoming Queen, but she hopes Caleb will like her dress...

 

 

They’re at the dance when it happens.

It’s not usually at the same time, even in the twins and triplets and even more-lets that are common among the pack’s children. But that night, exactly one minute and thirty-four seconds into Caleb’s dance with Amanda, pain hits her deep in her gut, and she doubles over, falling against him. Simultaneously, in the spotlight, dancing with the Homecoming King Eddy Rains, Ruby cries out, falling into her date. Eddy has no idea what to do, is frantic, looking up and around for one of the teachers, but Caleb scoops Amanda up in his arms, running past Eddy and for the door. “Get her to the hospital!” he barks, running past, and Eddy, a Hill boy and already Flipped and part of the pack, picks Ruby up and follows quickly.

On the other side of the room, Sherman Blackstone downs a swallow of his flask-spiked cup of punch and hands the rest to Mrs. Reynolds, the gym teacher. “Enjoy,” he says dryly, and shoves his hands into his pockets, heading for the door. Willard Cates will be one hell of a mess tonight.

 

 

It hurts. It hurts more than anything has ever hurt and she swears she’s going to die. Or the part of her brain that’s still functioning is pretty sure she’s gonna kick it. Everything is burning and twisting in her insides, moving and shifting and that’s _wrong_ , she knows it’s wrong, her brain knows it and doesn’t want it, wants it all to stay the way it is, the way it’s always been...

There had barely been any warning. She hadn’t even told anyone. No visions, no glowing eyes, no wild dreams... They’re whispering that, out in the hallway. In the next room, right on the other side of the wall, she can hear Ruby whimpering, and she whimpers back, trying to sound reassuring even though her mind is on fire. She growls, twists, wants to jump up, to run away from them and their hands and their ties, tying her down the way she should never be tied...

They put wet cloths on her head and she wants to rip their hands from their arms. She tries to bite them when they come close because it hurts, it _hurts_ and she just wants it to _stop_...

She sort of sleeps. It’s kind of sleep, but kind of not. There are more quiet voices. She doesn’t know what they’re saying, but she recognizes them. Her father. Vivian. Mr. Blackstone. Mrs. Donner and Sheriff Donner. If her throat was still shaped the right way, she would ask where Caleb went. He was there, before. She remembers his smell, even in her fevered, not-quite-human brain. Beneath the starch and the wool of his suit, she remembers the way he smelled. The thought makes the pain recede a little, as neurons fire in her brain and her back arches up off the bed. She cries out, pain and heat twisting around in her mind. Something tears, cloth tears, several somethings, and she screams as spasming muscles lift her up off the bed. But the scream doesn’t sound right, and when she tries to reach for her father her arm won’t go that way. Her fingers won’t move. Her legs scrabble around, but her paws won’t get purchase on the floor.

Very suddenly it’s quiet.

The roaring in her ears is gone. It’s all gone. There’s no more screaming, no more crying or moaning or whispering or praying. It’s all... silent.

After a failed attempt, during which she crashes into the bed, she finally stands on legs that aren’t the same as her old ones. Four of them, as it happens. Vivian stands there, behind her father, tears coursing down her face. Her father is smiling, but it’s... wrong. All wrong.

“Mandy,” he whispers, hunkering down on the floor in front of him. She wants to tell him not to call her that, but her mouth won’t make those sounds. Her tongue isn’t shaped the right way to talk, so she nuzzles him instead, whimpering. And then she falls down against him, too tired to stand.

He lifts her, stronger than anything and everyone, as though she’s just a tiny puppy in his arms, and she curls against his shoulder, licking his cheek. His arms tighten around her, carrying her out into the hallway, and Vivian touches the top of her head. She licks her stepmother’s wrist, too tired to do more than that, and waves her tail a little at the Sheriff and Mrs. Donner, still sitting there. And Caleb.

 _Caleb!_ Canine joy suffuses her, suddenly, and she wriggles around until her father relents and sets her down, stumbling over to her friend and immediately jumping up to wash his face. _Caleb! I did it, Caleb, look! I was afraid I couldn’t, but I did it!_ But he can’t understand her, not now, not yet. The Sheriff can, though; she can smell it in him.

“Yes, you did,” he says quietly. She looks up at him; he’s not smiling. Neither is Caleb, or Mrs. Donner. Turning, she peers back at Vivian and her father. Also not smiling. Her father’s grief hits her suddenly; he’d held it from her this long, but can’t manage any longer, and she freezes in place.

And then she bolts, charging into the room next to the one she’d been in, swerving around her father when he makes a grab for her. She’s in the room and jumping on the bed in less than three seconds, but she knows even before she lands next to her twin’s still form that it’s over.

She sniffs, nudging at Ruby’s arm, but there’s no response. No movement. Nothing. Her smell... it’s fading. Almost gone.

 _Ruby._

 _Ruby, wake up._

 _Ruby, come back._

 _Ruby!_

 _You can’t go alone!_

 _I can’t follow you, come back!_

 _Ruby!_ Ruby! RUBY!

But all of her crying, her pawing and nudging and then suddenly her shaking, gripping her sister as tightly as she can without even realizing or knowing how she’d changed back... none of it works. Ruby doesn’t move, only stares off into space, her face not human but not wolf. The fur grown on the back of her paws is shining white, as white as snow.

As white as the fur Amanda had shed on Caleb, and on her father.


End file.
